Newsletter

LAKE VICTORIA REGION LOCAL
AUTHORITIES AND COUNTIES
COOPERATION (LVRLACC)
LVRLAC E-Newsletter,Vol.Issue 1
MAY– OCT 2015
Message From Ag.Secretary General.
Inside this issue:
• Official Signing of MOU
Dear Esteemed Members, Friends and Partners,
Warm Greetings from the Ag.Secretary General’s
Desk.
It’s with great pride and satisfaction on behalf of the
LVRLAC Secretariat to convey my greetings to all
LVRLAC members, partners, stakeholders and the
entire Lake Victoria shore community.
We are so grateful to our members, partners and friends for their tireless efforts, commitment and support in attaining various achievements and progress towards development of the Lake Victoria Basin. Despite various challenges in as far as financial
matters are concerned LVRLAC has continued staying firm and strong, there is a
common quote by Louis May Alcott saying, “I am not afraid of storms for I am learning more how to sail my ship”.LVRLAC has under gone financial storms but however
the storms have given us new strategies, lessons and skills to continue sailing. The passion, interest, commitment and support we are getting from our members, stakeholders and development partners have enabled LVRLAC to continue realizing our
key milestones that we have set to achieve towards greater heights.
• Smart Cities Workshop
• Lvrlac,Prepared,Lvbc
• LVRLAC Professional Tour • LVRLAC - Aqua Africa Project.
About LVRLAC:
LVRLAC Secretariat is committed to the continued improvements in our network services to our members and other stakeholders and is also open to work with various
development partners, private companies and individuals in LVRLAC upcoming
events/activities mentioned in the last page of this bulletin.
Lake Victoria Region Local Authorities
Cooperation (LVRLACC) is a network
organization of local authorities and
counties around Lake Victoria with its
regio na l secretaria t i n Entebb e,
Uganda. LVRLACC was founded in 1997
to coordinate and strengthen collaborative efforts by Local Authorities within
the Lake Victoria Basin to sustainably
harness the region's resources and promote the well being of the riparian
communities. LVRLACC is now one of
the most dynamic and robust network
of grassroots governments closest to the
communities and a major developmental actor in the Lake Victoria basin.
Learn more about our aims and goals.
LVRLACC has a current membership of
113 local authorities and counties cutting across three countries namely
Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda that
share Lake Victoria, with prospective
membership from Burundi and Rwanda.
Lastly, as we introduce the new edition of our e-news bulletin, LVRLAC Secretariat is
proud to announce and update our members on various activities implemented in
the period from May to October 2015.
LVRLAC CONTACTS:
LVRLAC has continued rolling out both Network and Project related activities no matter the financial challenges and among the key activities being; Annual General Assemblies and related activities, Local and International Trainings, Environmental
Awareness Campaigns, Chapter related activities through big support from LVRLAC
Members and various partners. Recently LVRLAC signed a number of MOUs with various International development partners and currently finalizing other important MOUs
which will in near future benefit our member local authorities.
Hope you will find this edition interesting and informative to read. We welcome feedback from you. Please send your correspondence to the LVRLAC Secretariat through
email address; secretarygeneral@lvrlac.net, projectassug@lvrlac.net, tanzaniasec@lvrlac.net or emily@lvrlac.net
PLOT 2A Circular Road, Entebbe - Uganda,
P.O.Box 34,Tel:256-414-321784,Fax:256414-322 483, Email:secretariat@lvrlac.net,
Website: http://www.lvrlac.net
Enjoy Reading!
Edwin Magere
https://www.facebook.com/lvrlac
LVRLAC PARTNERS.
Working with Communities to Ensure Sustainable Utilization of Lake Victoria Resources.
Page 2
LVRLAC Workshop on Smart City and Urban Smartness and Official Signing of an MOU
Between LVRLAC,S.U.I.Ts & Interloc Development .
Smart City & Urban Smartness Workshop LVRLACC, June 2015
In 17-19 June 2015, LVRLACC organized a workshop for its members on
smart cities and urban smartness, led and moderated by Rafi Rich CEO of
SUITS (Smarter Urban iT & strategies), together with Yossi Offer of Interloc
Development.
The aim of the workshop was to discuss the processes of technological and
organizational aspects of smart cities, relevant to the greatest challenges
of the urban communities of the member cities and built environments of
LVRLACC. The method used was to create a dialogue and open discussion to identify the capacity of the municipal ecosystem for implementation and the part of the LVRLACC organizational assists in enabling these
concepts and processes. .
The three-day workshop, introduced concepts, methods, tools and processes relevant to smart cities. Including introduction to state-of-the –art Israeli experiences, while examining the benefits as well as the difficulties
and dangers resulting from the use of unaudited, not adapted and uninformed measures, and especially- the danger of copying processes without tailor-making them to fit the eastern Africa municipalities.
Official Signing of an MOU Between LVRLACC,S.U.Ts and Interloc Development
The outcome of the workshop was an understanding, that there are three fields of actions possible. These provide a balance between great needs and the potential of implementation utilizing LVRLACC's organizational
benefit.
These three main fields and projects are:
•
Creating smart municipal platforms based on smart and dynamic geo-mapping systems.
•
•
Creating community led infrastructure and micro grids (community infrastructure centers
Initiating and building local urban – innovation hubs including creating a LVRLACC Network of business &
innovation centers for urban & rural areas. Including Beta Sites for urban technologies, accelerators, educational fablabsetc.
The delegates where highly active in trying to promote these fields and projects and sat at a national/chapter
level to define the barriers and better needs of each country- towards a wider partnership with SUITS and the
Israeli team to bring needed innovation and smart infrastructure to the east Africa arena.
Wrapping up the event, LVRLACC signed a MOU with SUITS and Interlock to promote wide scale urban innovation and civic smartness, expressing the will to work with the Israeli partners as the lead partner in promoting
innovation in the region.
Currently LVRLACC is working with SUITS to choose pilot cities and councils from each country, creating application for membership in the 100 resilient city challenges of the Rockefeller foundation, towards a wider mutual business plan and working agreement.
Working with Communities to Ensure Sustainable Utilization of Lake Victoria Resources
Page 3
LVRLAC PROFFESSIONAL TRAININING & TOUR UNITED ARAB EMIRATES.
This activity involved both Professional Trainings and Exposure Tours held on 31 st July – 5th Aug 2015 and 14th –
18th Sept 2015, organized by the Secretariat of the Lake Victoria Regional Local Authorities and Counties Cooperation together with Gulf Royal Way Point FZE, an events management firm based in Dubai, United
Araba Emirates.
The activity benefited local authorities and counties from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and included both
technocrats and political leaders from our LVRLAC member local authorities and counties. It involved class
trainings/presentations, field visits, courtesy call to the embassies and meetings with various development
partners;
Presentations:
• From Directors of Messrs Micro Logic Technologies Middle East FZE on Human Resource and Payroll
Management Systems; on how Staff performance could be monitored by individual local authorities/
county managers; how to eradicate the issue of Ghost workers; How to automate the payroll process
and Managing Staff HR Records online.
• From Director of VIP Power Solutions Middle East FZE (Mr. Krishnan Lyer); an organization that transforms waste from landfills to clean electric energy in which delegates expressed their interest on possibility of establishing a joint venture for such projects in East Africa.
Field Visits:
• Bee’ah (Government of Sharjah wholly owned waste management company); an integrated environment and waste management company, founded in 2007 with its headquarters in the Emirate of
Sharjah. LVRLACC delegates visited Bee’ah and learnt how the company uses various infrastructure
tools, facilities and initiatives to turn waste into resources and transforming thoughts, attitude in individuals, communities and businesses towards turning waste into resources.
• The International Center for Bio-Saline Agriculture (ICBA) is an international, non-profit agricultural
research center established in 1999, ICBA is a world-class modern research facility with a team of international scientists conducting applied research and development to improve agricultural productivity and sustainability in marginal and saline environments.
• Dubai Sports City designed and established with a
mix of residential, retail, leisure and recreational facilities owned by three forward thinking partners;
Abdul Rahim Al Zarooni, Abdurrahman Bukhatir and
Abdurrahman Falaknaz, The three partners that are
the driving force behind Dubai Sport City are pillars
of the UAE business community and have extensive
interests and decades of experience across a wide
range of commercial sectors, including real estate,construction,retail,shopping malls and sports
management.
LVRLACC, ICBA, Bee’ah and Dubai Sports City’s Partners are looking forward to establish partnerships
through signed MOUs which will further benefit our
member local authorities and counties.
Training Session at Dubai Sports City.
Working with Communities to Ensure Sustainable Utilization of Lake Victoria Resources.
LVRLACC, LVBC & PREPARED
JOINT TRAINING.
Page 4
Quality Service Improvement Program (QSIP),26th—27th Aug 2015.
Group Photo : Participants to the QSIP Training, Kisumu - Kenya
The training was held on 26th – 27th Aug 2015 at Sovereign Hotel in Kisumu – Kenya, fully sponsored by
Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC) and Planning for Resilience in East Africa through Policy Adaptation Research and Economic Development (PREPARED).
Participants to the training were City Directors/Town Clerks/Municipal Directors from LVRLAC member
local authorities and counties from ; Migori County Government, Homabay County Government, Kisumu County Government, Entebbe Municipality, Kampala City,Masaka Municipality,Musoma Municipality,Mwanza City Council,Bukoba Municipality, Ilemela Municipality and LVRLACC Secretariat.
The training introduced LVRLACC members with tools and methods for designing and implementation
of a Quality Service Improvement Program (QSIP), an approach with specific tools aimed at improving the delivery of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services by utilities of Municipal/County
Governments.
LVRLACC Fraternity conveys much appreciation to both Lake Victoria Basin Commission
(LVBC),PREPARED Project and Facilitator to the training ( Mr. Garry Forbes) for availing such a great
opportunity to LVRLACC in providing the QSIP skills to our members.
Working with Communities to Ensure Sustainable Utilization of Lake Victoria Resources.
Page 5
Public Private Partnership for Safe, Clean and Affordable drinking water.
Drinking water is a daily necessity of life of all human beings, poor or rich.
However, access to clean, safe and affordable drinking water cannot be
taken for granted, as drinking water is relatively expensive to most people in
the Lake Victoria Region. It has been a strategic priority of LVRLAC and its
members to find solutions that may provide lake communities with drinking
water.
On that background, LVRLAC has entered into a public private partnership
with Aqua Africa Purification Ltd. Aqua Africa is a Danish-East African company providing safe, clean and affordable drinking water. Purified water
from Aqua Africa is of the highest quality, meeting WHO standards and
avoiding the risks of waterborne diseases. Water from Aqua Africa is of at
least same quality as bottled water, but at a much more affordable price.
Aqua Africa already has two purification plants in Uganda, - one at Bugema
University near Kampala and another in Arua town in the northwestern most
corner of Uganda.
AquaAfrica demonstration at Kigungu, Entebbe with the
mayor of Entebbe.
Aqua Africa is not a stranger to LVRLAC. CEO of Aqua Africa is Mr. Christian Rietz; a Danish national who was working as an advisor to
LVRLAC in 2002-4. “It has always been his dream to continue supporting LVRLAC and its members in reaching its developmental goals
to the benefit of the communities. With the Aqua Africa solution, we may have a vehicle to push for concrete results on the ground
and to benefit LVRLAC and its members as well. I believe it has the potential of becoming a win-win-win situation”, says Mr. Rietz.
At the LVRLAC AGM in May 2015, an MoU was signed between LVRLAC and Aqua Africa. The cooperation will start as a pilot project in
Entebbe municipality to gain experiences and to start building the cooperation.
The basic setup is for Aqua Africa to provide the technical solution of producing and delivering purified drinking water. Aqua Africa
finances, owns and runs the water production. The LVRLAC member council must in turn help identify potential markets for the water
sale within its local area. In Entebbe a landing site and two schools have been identified for the pilot project. LVRLAC as t he regional
body will support the process and help market the cooperation at the strategic level though information and campaigns.
All three parties must live up to their respective roles and responsibilities for the project to be a success. If so, the cooperation entails,
that the profits from the water sold in the cooperation will be shared between Aqua Africa, LVRLAC and the respective member
council. Thus all parties stand to gain from the cooperation and has an incitement of attaining its success.
The pilot project will be evaluated in early 2016. The aim is to roll out drinking water solutions to other LVRLAC member councils in the
years to come. However, it is important to assess the market potential before a new local authority can be brought on board. New
markets must be of a minimum critical mass, typically up to 6,000 liters per day to make it profitable. The markets in a local authority
can be a mixture of schools, hospitals and local markets and landing sites, where the need for water is high. As Aqua Africa offers affordable prices, its solutions may in most cases replace existing expensive and/or unsafe sources of water.
Upcoming Events:
• Chapter Meetings/Orientation/Sensitizations ( Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya).
• Regional and Chapter Trainings
• Leadership and Development Trainings ( Mayors, Chairmen and Executive Directors)
• LVRLAC Development Partners’ Forum.
Working with Communities to Ensure Sustainable Utilization of Lake Victoria Resources.